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“Ah.” She watched him. “But you’ll tell him when he gets back?”
Barry said, “I just don’t see the need to hide from anyone outside of our coworkers. We’re not doing anything wrong. But if you want to keep it a secret, I’ll respect that.”
Xolani stared at him thoughtfully for a while before saying, “I don’t know.”
He left later that evening without a clear answer on whether she wanted to make their situation public or keep it just between them.
However, just a week later, the decision was taken out of their hands.
16
“SPILL IT.” JUSTINE CONFRONTED XOLANI when they met on Wednesday at Gazegas for the Ladies’ Night special. “Who is he?”
Xolani, who was seated directly across Justine, raised her eyebrows. “Who is who?”
“What are we talking about?” Anika, who was seated next to Justine, eagerly and curiously looked between the two women. “Who is who?”
“We’re talking about the man who is making Xolani lie to us.” Justine’s intense gaze stayed on Xolani. “What’s his name?”
“There is no man.” Xolani’s heart was beating so fast it felt like it was trying to jump out of her chest. But somehow, she kept her voice steady and her expression calm as she added, “And I haven’t lied to you.”
“For real?” Justine laughed sarcastically before saying, “Yesterday, I called you and asked where you were because I needed to drop off your invitation to Simon’s wedding.”
Simon was Justine’s ex. He was getting married and as a last sort of ‘f you’, he’d invited Justine to his wedding. Unfortunately for him, Justine had never liked him enough to be hurt by such petty actions. Worse, she was actually excited to attend a wedding. She wanted to see which woman was dumb enough to get legally attached to an unemployed, mouthy misogynist like Simon. Somehow, she’d sweet-talked her way into invitations for Xolani and Anika too so they could watch the show.
“I remember,” Xolani confirmed. “And I told you to wait to give it to me today because I wasn’t home.”
Justine’s eyebrows flew up. “So you’re admitting you lied?”
“What? No!” Xolani insisted. “I’m just recapping what went down.”
“Xo. You were at home.” Gleefully, Justine informed her, “I was already close to your place when I called you, so I decided to just drop in. I was going to slip the invitation under your door or something. But guess what I saw?”
Xolani’s heart stopped and her breath caught in her throat. Please don’t say you saw us.
Wide-eyed with curiosity, Anika gasped. “What did you see?”
“Her.” Justine smirked as she pointed at Xolani. “I saw her with a man’s arm around her waist. He was walking into her building.”
Anika gasped sharply. “Noooo!”
“No, you didn’t,” Xolani desperately denied. There was no way Justine had seen her and Barry going to her house for another one of their sex marathons. No way. “You must’ve seen someone that looked like me.”
“I’d know your skinny behind even if I saw it from Mars.” Justine scoffed. “It was you.”
“Did you see the man’s face?” An excited Anika demanded. “Who is he? Who is he?”
“I didn’t see his face.” Justine made a disappointed face. “I only saw their backs.”
Immediate relief swept through Xolani, and she exhaled shakily. Thank God. Trying hard to hide her relief at not getting caught, she said, “I’m telling you, it wasn’t me. You only saw their backs. It wasn’t me.”
“Please, Shaggy,” Justine mocked her while referring to the singer’s 2000 song. “It was you.”
Xolani turned to Anika, the only neutral party, and reiterated. “It really wasn’t me.”
Anika studied her then snorted. Clearly, she didn’t believe the lies.
But Xolani insisted, “Guys, it wasn’t me.”
